U.S. Pat. No. 7,168,743 and U.S. patent application 2007/0018448 both disclose methods and apparatus for sealing terminal ends of pipe sleeves. The sleeves are used for the repairing of pipes and are generally made of metal. These pipes may be above ground or under water. In both US specifications there is disclosed the use of a sleeve 22 which is arranged to be placed surrounding the area of the pipe surface requiring repair. That means that the sleeves must be tailored to the pipes' diameter, and to the length of the pipe requiring repair. As such, a large range of sleeves are required for the range of varying pipe diameters that may be used. As the repair can be over various axial lengths of the pipe, the normal method is to fabricate sleeves required for each repair. In that way the sleeves can be tailored to the length required and also the diameter required. The design and fabrication of the sleeves can sometimes take months. In that period the pipeline may need to be closed down due to the risk of failure of the pipe. This can cause significant destruction. If the pipes were carrying, for example, oil, the results of a failure of the pipe could be significant environmental damage.